The Alchemist

Otm, I have to disagree with you. This song is not that obviously about Alchemy and an Alchemist's perspective on life.

"Wash away the blackness with the silver rain" represents the forging of the Philosopher's Stone, many Alchemists believed it was made from lead using quicksilver. "Don't turn away" stands for the tension of the moment, it could reveal a hit but it always failed.

"Sulphurous and burning, spitting out the sun, The beginning of Creation, of the Golden One." The sun in Alchemy stands for gold, because Alchemists were heretics they had to stay underground and keep everything as secret as possible. This bit tells the beginning of forging the Philosopher's Stone, a stone that can give eternal life, or can project anything into gold.

"A window to the west, a blazing star above, In Taurus we begin it, and the ladder has begun." The west stands for death and once again the sun is mentioned, it's a bit of cryptic information about the stone. Taurus is a Alchemical process that could be used as a way to try and make the stone.

The Chorus is now pretty clear. The Alchemist didn't care about the Catholic way of Christianity and wants to be left alone, not prosecuted for trying to do the right thing.

"Four-headed dragon for the four degrees of fire Purify the insane, bring the solution ever higher " I don't know what this exactly means, it is probably about the religious side of Alchemy. In Alchemy, the four is a holy number I guess.

"Bring me all the elements, spread them round my head Bring me mad men's bodies, I will break them all like bread " Here he talks about the "four" western elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind. I guess this symbolises the insanity that comes forth from giving your life for something but never really getting anything out of it.

"Don't try and blame me for your games Your games are death My world is light - the angels fill my eyes With every breath..." The last chorus to me is the climax of the song. It clearly accuses the Catholic Church for keeping everything in it's grip and puts the well-meaning individual above everything.

I can't really explain the last part of the song, anyone has fitting suggestions?

Originally the Chemical Wedding cd was about Alchemy (a medieval practice that tried to turn any element into gold, and tried to make the Elixir of Life). Then Bruce connected to the poems by William Blake and it changed around a bit. This is one of the songs about Alchemy obviously.

This song may be about alchemy on the surface, but has nothing to do with it when you look at it symbolically. This is somewhat like a song about the end of the world.

"Wash away the blackness with the silver rain..." is kind of like talking about cleansing humanity's impurities with the final judgement. "Don't turn away..." is like saying it's unavoidable.

The second verse is sort of like a brief history of creation leading to the end times. "A window to the west..." represents the birth of Christ, obviously indicated by the star. This could have an inversed meaning, as much of the song appears to be describing Christ the Judge instead of Christ the Lamb. "In Taurus we begin it..." is a referrence to the prophecies of Nostradomus, who I believe predicted the beginning of the end to start during the early days of the Zodiac sign Taurus.

The chrous shows Christ the Judge or even the Antichrist, perhaps "Don't try and blame me for your sins..." is sort of an inverse of Christ's death on the cross to save mankind from their sins. I see "For the sun has burnt me black" as more of a representation of how mankind has grown evil, with "Your hollow lives, this world in which we live, I throw it back" as speaking of the disdain for the human lack of purpose or sanctity in the world. The world which was once brought into light is now thrown back into the fire for purification.

The next verse speaks of the apocalyptic dragon (though the dragon of revelations had seven heads) and the fires of hell, how they will blaze hotter with the bodies of the evil men. "Bring me all the elements..." is a bit unclear to me, but the "Bring me madmens bodies..." is a clear referrence to destroying the evil during their judgement.

"Don't try and blame me for your games..." is saying that mankind ended itself with war, the angels thing that follows represents a righteous man entering the gates of heaven.

The chemical wedding chorus here I take to represent the unavoidable fate of all men, meeting their fate at the same hands in the same loaction, or it could be a referrence to mass graves like those of the Holocaust.

The ending I take to represent the world reverting to its original state, lying simply on God's left foot, the sandal representing hope for the world as God walks on, carrying the "vegetable world" eternally with him.

I love lengthy songs such as this one (>5m), and the random transition into Chemical Wedding lyrics sound nice. Don't know how to explain it, it's the same with any lengthy song.

No... You are not right... this song is about Bananaman

Well, that makes sense, too, Giant. I think they basically work together - there's sort of an actual act occuring, and a staging behind it going on in this song.

Either way, it rules.

the song is about alchemy... if you don't get it, you don't understand alchemy, or christianity, etc...

I would just like to point out that "a window to the west" is a clear reference to Gustav Meyrink's novel, "The Angel of the Western Window", which is based on the life of Dr Dee, the same alchemist as the Maiden song of the same title written by Dickinson (The alchemist, from the album The Final Frontier, 2010). Therefore, this is the most likely subject of the song.

[Edit: I forgot the verse of the reference ]

So I basically know this interpretation is "wrong" and the alchemy explanation actually could make sense.

But any way, I always linked the song to the moral questions between science and politics. The dilemmas of scientific advances .. the easiest example being the atomic bomb (which, if you are feeling overly imaginative, "creation, of the golden one" and "blazing star above" could be a reference to). In that sense the scientist (or the alchemist) wants no blame for the sins or "games of death" (=wars) that politicians play. I always found the bit about the "my world is light" to be fascinating because it fits to this mentality of science .. that the it's world is pure, seeking truth, not troubled by politics, and beyond everyday matters ("hollow lives").